Video Transcript: Spiritual Development

Welcome back. We're continuing with our course developing great commission  skills. We're dealing with skill number five, working with staff and leaders. Last  time we looked at spiritual authority as a skill topic. But with this video, we're  moving into spiritual development, which, of course, fosters spiritual authority.  We'll be looking at the spiritual development of leaders so that they can, you  know, deal with leadership from a posture of spiritual authority. So let me share  with you my definition of leadership. This, of course, is leadership in the church.  Leadership is taking responsibility for the spiritual development of others. I think  it's important that we recognize that top level leadership in the church needs to  be engaged, needs to be devoted to the spiritual development of people, very  often the primary leadership in the church on the staff front, or the department  head front, is concerned with running programs. A lot of times in the work of  elders or deacons, we find that they're consumed with church management or  church operational enterprises. So what we want to do is shy away from those  two approaches and think of leadership as spiritual leadership that takes  responsibility for the spiritual development of others now in the context of  helping people develop spiritually. Yeah, we need to deal with management. We  need to deal with organization. We need to deal with leading whatever our  ministry areas or programs or departments might be, that's part of it. But the  ultimate goal, what we're striving for, we're striving to develop people spiritually  maturity in Christ, fullness of the maturity of Christ no longer tossed to and fro  like children, as as Paul has indicated. Well, let me move to a particular  grouping of disciplines that are central to helping people develop spiritually. And  we're talking about the four disciplines of a great commission church. Now the  four disciplines that we're going to talk about should be developed individually,  but also should be developed corporately, in that they should, they should  penetrate into all of the nooks and crannies of the church. So the idea of  developing the four disciplines of a great commission church are coupled with  the four disciplines of a great commission, person or individual, all right, so let's  dive in. The first one is preemptive prayer. You're going to find that each of these four disciplines is captured in a two word phrase with a noun in a modifier. Well,  the noun here, of course, is prayer. The modifier is preemptive prayer. It's a  certain kind of prayer. Every church prays. Every Christian prays in one way or  another, to one degree or another. So we're not suggesting that prayer isn't  already a part of a person's life, that it's not already part of the corporate life of a church, but what I'm saying is that there's a particular strategic kind of prayer  that we want to offer in the case of becoming a great commission church. So  hold on to that for a moment, as a passage of scripture I want to share with you  from Acts 2. Says this, When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all  gathered in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a  mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Now  I'd like to suggest to you that that mighty rushing wind is still coming from 

heaven. It moves the gospel into the harvest of souls where the Lost have been  gathered, and it's in. That harvest that people will be redeemed, will be  discovered, found, drawn into the family of God. Now preemptive prayer is  prayer that is done in a particular way. It's to be used preemptively. So the  question becomes, what is preemptive prayer? Well, one way of thinking of  preemptive prayer is, it's prayer of the first resort. It's the first thing that we do.  You know, for example, well, the word preemptive can be associated with a  couple of other words, preeminence. Preeminence. You know, all of these carry  the same basic connotation, just different figures of speech. But we're talking  about prayer for the first resort. Preeminence. It's it. We're talking about  superiority, preeminent. Mean, it's first in line. Preemptive means it's preceding  something else, well preceding what Think of it this way, as we have discerned  and developed our great commission vision, eventually we develop and  articulate a great commission strategy. Now this strategy is going to call for  certain things to be done, certain actions to be taken, certain strategies to be  employed. Well, the idea of preemptive prayer is that in advance of all of the  things that we're going to do, we're going to be in prayer. For example, let's say,  in the area of youth ministry, some kind of event has been planned. Well, prior to that event, prayer is going to be laid out. Prayer for the event, prayer for the  people working the event. Prayer for the development of the content of that  event. Prayer for the hearts of youth out in the community to be open to  receiving the invitation, something that will prompt them to attend and be part of  this event. So you know, all across the board, we're praying in advance for that  mighty rushing wind that is the Spirit of God to move through that event and in  all manner of ways, making that event effective at providing some combination  of outreach and evangelism and discipleship, which are the three movements of  our church. So we start off with preemptive prayer. Now let's move to number  two, basic Bible. Now, once again, I'm going to share these two questions with  you from basic Bible. What does God say about this in his word? What Does  God mean by what he says in His Word? Now, here's my observation. I have  found that in the 21st century church, there is a great deal of biblical illiteracy.  Folks just don't know the Bible now on a let's call it an objective theological  level, they understand that the Bible is the Word of God. They probably affirm  that they have perhaps favorite verses of the Bible that they respond to. They  they might read the Bible, they listen to sermons, they hear teachings, but they  don't really subjectively know how to get into the Bible and mine out the truth  about the various things in their lives that they're working through. Let me give  you an example. In the course of my ministry life, I have had many occasions  where I've been in a conversation with a young man who has become  disenchanted with his marriage, and so he might say something to me, like, I  just don't think that I'm really in Love with my wife anymore, and I'm not happy.  Certainly God, God wants me to be happy, right? Well, he's thinking that, as a 

Christian man, God wants me to be happy. He wants me to be fulfilled. And I'm  not really being fulfilled in this relationship with. My wife at this point, so he's  looking to me to grant him some kind of permission, perhaps to leave his wife, to pursue his happiness, as it were. Well, what this indicates is that this person,  though claiming to be a follower of Christ doesn't know what the Bible says,  because there's no, there's no biblical promise of happiness. There is a biblical  promise of joy, but that is of a very different genre than the kind of happiness  that he's speaking of. And so what, what I would do in a case like this is I would  say, well, there really isn't anything in Scripture about your being happy. You are  to be content in whatever circumstance, and there is a deep seated joy that you  can experience when you're in a right relationship with Jesus Christ. So what  you're telling me by being quote, unhappy is your relationship with the Lord is  probably struggling right now. But what I'd really like to talk to you about is what  it means, what it means to be a godly husband, a biblical husband. So let's, let's  take a look at Acts. Ephesians 4:21 submit to one another, one another, out of  reverence for Christ. Wives submit to your husbands, etc, etc. But then we get  to the husband. Husband, love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave  Himself up for her. So let me ask you a question. Do you think that the love that  you have for your wife is the same kind of love that Jesus Christ had for his  church, a love of sacrifice? Well, obviously, the answer is probably no, and that  leads us into a different kind of conversation. Well, the idea of basic Bible is that  we as individuals and we as congregations need to get back to the basics of  reading, studying, knowing, applying the Bible to our everyday lives, in our  everyday situations, we need to become people of the word biblical literacy  needs to thrive, and so we want to promote this discipline of basic Bible as one  of those things that's going to help us develop spiritually. Now let's move to  discipline number three, cost commitment, a great commission church is a  sacrificially committed church. Now the tendency in our day is to lower the bar of commitment. Sometimes we are concerned that if we set the bar high, that it will discourage people from being part of the church, that we might lose people  because we perhaps have too high an expectation of their commitment to the  Lord, but perhaps you're familiar with the phrase that says, Ask for a high  commitment and you get a high commitment. Ask for a low commitment and you get no commitment. Now I'm not quoting that as scripture, because it's not in the Bible, but I do believe that it speaks it speaks truth. It rings true in my my soul, in my mind, the truth is following after Christ is quite demanding, quite demanding.  Let me share a couple of things. In Galatians, Paul writes, do not be deceived.  God is not mocked for whatever one sows that will he also reap. So if we sow a  low commitment, what are we going to get? Low return? That's not what it's  about. Try this on for size. From Matthew the teaching of Jesus. He says this,  whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever  loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever does not 

take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose  it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Now, does that sound like a  low commitment? I think not. I think not so. What is the point? Well, the point is  

the bar of commitment for following Christ is actually set very, very high, very  high, as the hymn exclaims, Jesus paid it all, All to Him. I owe. Jesus gave us  his everything, and He requires of us our everything. Now, to be clear, we don't  purchase our salvation. Our salvation was purchased for us by the blood of  Christ, His death on the cross as penalty for our sins, and Jesus was raised  from the dead as the first fruit of the resurrection, guaranteeing that we will be  raised into eternal life. Now, the expectation is very high. We are to lose our  lives for the cause of Christ, for the sake of Christ, so we're not doing anyone a  favor in the church by allowing them to believe that following after Christ is not a  costly venture. So we need to be encouraging people to step up and be willing  to make that sacrifice, make that commitment, give their all to the Lord, and as  Paul has said, all for the glory of God, cost commitment. Now the final of these  four is called missional multiplication. Missional multiplication, a great  commission church is a multiplying church. So you know, when we put all these  pieces together, what do we see? A great commission church is a praying  Church. The Great Commission church is a church of the Bible. The Great  Commission church is a highly committed Church. The Great Commission,  church is a multiplying church, and the same applies to us as individuals. Now  the decree, as we've said earlier, of the original covenant in Genesis 1 be fruitful and multiply. And that sets us off on this path that culminates in Revelation with,  behold a multitude. And we ask that question, you know, how are we going to  get how is God going to get his family from the multiply of Genesis to the  multitude of Revelation? And the answer is, the answer is, he's going to get us  there through the multiplying of the kingdom. And in part, we're going to multiply  through spiritual development. As people who are coming into the faith are  becoming people of prayer, people of the Bible, people of a high level  commitment, and people who multiply go and make disciples, baptizing teaching obedience to the commands of Christ. Now my observation is that most  churches acknowledge the need and desire to reach people in the harvest, but  few make doing so a ministry priority, but a great commission church truly does.  Now, in order to move from intent to spiritual development strategy, what needs  to happen? Well, how is this impact going to be developed? How is this how is  the impact of the Great Commission in disciples developed? How is the impact  of the Great Commission through disciples going to be developed now, as we  answer that question, we begin to engender spiritual development. Now, one of  the ways that we can help people to grow in terms of of the impact of the Great  Commission in them, as well as the impact of the Great Commission through  them, is through these four disciplines of preemptive prayer, basic Bible, cost,  commitment and missional multiplication. The harvest is plentiful. The laborers 

are few. We want to send skilled laborers into the harvest. Skilled laborers in  part are laborers who have developed spiritually through prayer, through Bible,  through commitment, through multiplication, now working with staff and leaders  centers on establishing a core of spiritual development among staff and leaders. You see, staff and leaders are not just there to take on responsibility for the  spiritual development of others, they also need to take responsibility for the  spiritual development of themselves. So let me comment for a moment about  leading spiritual development in the church. The place that we need to start as  leaders, as individual leaders, is we need to start with leadership of self. I need  to take responsibility for my own spiritual development, and I need to move  forward in that endeavor. Secondly, we need to become leaders in our homes.  Whatever our household situation is, perhaps we're married, perhaps there are  kids in the house. Perhaps you're a single person living with two or three other  single folks in some kind of living arrangement, but whatever your household  situation is, you begin to take leadership for the spiritual development of the  folks that you live with. So leadership of yourself, first, leadership of those you  live with. Second, then we move further into the leadership of the congregation,  if you've established a solid foundation of self leading coupled with leading in the home, and now you begin to be qualified to lead in the church, lead in the  congregation, taking spiritual responsibility for those around you now, if in your  leadership position, a pastoral position, you've got responsibility to help those  that are part of your congregation develop spiritually. And then finally, leadership in the community, part of going and making disciples is looking outside of the  church, into the community, into the community, and recognizing that folks that  are out there in the community need to be developed spiritually. First and  foremost, they need the gospel. They need to come to Christ, and once they  cross that starting line of salvation, they then need to be grounded in the faith  and moved to greater maturity. How are they going to be grounded in the faith?  Well, there's going to be a lot of prayer, there's going to be a lot of Bible. We're  going to challenge folks to a high level of commitment, and they are going to  grow and grow to the point that they become missional multipliers, the four  disciplines of a great commission, church, preemptive prayer, basic Bible, cost  commitment, missional multiplication. Now that wraps up our video on spiritual  development. Next time we're going to continue looking at working with staff and leaders, and our attention is going to focus on strong relationships. So in the  meantime, I pray for God's blessing as you continue your studies, as you  continue your ministries in the name of Jesus, amen,